Part 22

Justen's POV

I woke up the next day to find myself back in my bed. Confused, I looked around. It was my room, but when did my dad put me in my room? I got out of bed and got dressed before walking into the kitchen to see that it had been cleaned. What was going on? Not hearing my dad, I walked down the hall to his room. Taking a quick peek inside, I saw that he wasn't even there. I looked around the small house to find out that my dad was nowhere to be seen.

Figuring I'd find out where he went after school, I grabbed my bag and got on my bike to ride to school.

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When I got to school, I didn't see Josh's truck. Something must be going on. I sent a quick where are you text to Josh before I walked into the school. I was about to get to my normal spot until I was stopped.

"Justen, I need to have a talk with you," Ryan said, tightening his grip on my arm.

"Leave me alone, Ryan," I said, trying to get out of his grip.

"No, we need to talk," Ryan said.

I tried to get out of his grip again only for it to tighten some more.

Ryan pulled me close to him and leaned towards my ear. "We have Josh," he whispered.

"Where are we going to talk?" I asked.

"There we go," Ryan said, dragging me into the parking lot.

I followed behind as he dragged me and I saw Josh standing in the parking lot with the rest of Ryan's group behind him.

"Josh?" I asked, confused at what was going on.

"Uh, my parents told me I couldn't hang out with you anymore," Josh said.

"That is the most elementary school thing I have ever heard you say," I said.

"They said you were a bad influence on me and my younger brother," Josh said.

"Josh, stop with this stupid shit," I said. "This isn't you."

Ryan whispered something to Josh and Josh nodded. Ryan's group surrounded me and the last thing I saw before they beat me up was Josh mouthing out the words "meet me at our special spot".

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At the end of the day, I was tired. Tired of everything. But I went to my and Josh's special spot despite how tired I was. When I arrived, I saw Josh sitting on his rock.

"Can you explain to me what the hell happened this morning?!" I said, limping towards him.

"Justen, I am so sorry," Josh said.

"Why?" I asked.

Suddenly Josh burst into tears. "I am so sorry. My parents would have killed me if I didn't do what I did this morning," he cried. "I still want to be with you, I still want us to have our random conversations under the stars, I still want to hang out with you. But if my parents knew about you and that I'm not straight, they'd kill me. Not to mention I wanted to protect you."

"Protect me?" I asked.

"If I continued to hang out with you in the public eye, my parents would have found out who you were and went after you," Josh said, trying to stop crying.

"Josh, I'm sorry I had to put you through that," I said, putting my arm around him gently.

"You didn't do anything," Josh said, not crying anymore. "That's why I like you."

"Because I don't do anything?" I asked, confused.

"No," Josh smiled. "Because you lay low and nobody really notices you."

"Is that the only reason you like me?" I asked.

"Of course not," Josh said. "You're also really funny, smart, and even though people don't see you, you embrace your weirdness."

"So I'm funny, dumb, and weird," I said. "I'm good with that."